Solo Battery charging cable

[Vashaun Henderson]

Hey Guys,

I have already chopped the solo charger, XT60 connector'd it and charged it with my SKYRC 4 in 1, however no matter how much current you choose to try and charge the solo battery at the smart balancer will not allow anything over 3.3a. So if you are looking at this option to reduce charge time, it will not unless you bypass the balancer internally. Personally i did this mod so that instead of plugging 4 separate chargers into 4 plugs and not getting any readout as to how much MAH was put in or how long the battery have been on , at least with the SKYRC supplying (in charge mode not balance) i get all that.

 

[Maddog]

Hey Guys,

I have already chopped the solo charger, XT60 connector'd it and charged it with my SKYRC 4 in 1, however no matter how much current you choose to try and charge the solo battery at the smart balancer will not allow anything over 3.3a. So if you are looking at this option to reduce charge time, it will not unless you bypass the balancer internally. Personally i did this mod so that instead of plugging 4 separate chargers into 4 plugs and not getting any readout as to how much MAH was put in or how long the battery have been on , at least with the SKYRC supplying (in charge mode not balance) i get all that.

That is great information- thanks for posting!

 

[RolandS888]

The SkyRC quattro charger is self limited to 50W per channel (about 3.3 amps at 4S), same as the stock Solo charger is limited to supplying only 50w at a maximum. Whatever current you dial up, eg 5 amps, it will max out at 50W, about 3.3 amps..
What you are seeing is the SKYRC charger limitation, not a smart battery limitation.
If you use a 100W charger for example you can pump 6 amps into that battery and be back in the air in under an hour., ...however....
I tend not to give these batteries a hard time, they are expensive, so if Im not in a rush they can sit there charging at 1C for as long as it takes.

 

[Maddog]

The SkyRC quattro charger is self limited to 50W per channel (about 3.3 amps at 4S), same as the stock Solo charger is limited to supplying only 50w at a maximum. Whatever current you dial up, eg 5 amps, it will max out at 50W, about 3.3 amps..
What you are seeing is the SKYRC charger limitation, not a smart battery limitation.
If you use a 100W charger for example you can pump 6 amps into that battery and be back in the air in under an hour.

More good info because I have an 80W charger.

 

[Soloing]

Hey Guys,

I have already chopped the solo charger, XT60 connector'd it and charged it with my SKYRC 4 in 1, however no matter how much current you choose to try and charge the solo battery at the smart balancer will not allow anything over 3.3a. So if you are looking at this option to reduce charge time, it will not unless you bypass the balancer internally. Personally i did this mod so that instead of plugging 4 separate chargers into 4 plugs and not getting any readout as to how much MAH was put in or how long the battery have been on , at least with the SKYRC supplying (in charge mode not balance) i get all that.

Not true. I charged my Solo batteries before with 5 amps... no problem. Like someone said, your charger is or might be the limiting factor.

A lot of people do not know how chargers work. All they see is some numbers. So, when you charger says "max 8 amps", you have to also look at what you are charging and how many Watts you have. For example: If you want to charge a 4s (16.8V) battery with 8 amps, you would need 8 x 16.8V = 134.4 Watts. But if your charger only has 80 Watts, you are then looking at 80W / 16.8V = 4.76 Amps max charge rate...

Thanks.

EDIT: The plan is to use a bigger charger AND charge more batteries at the same time. In Parallel that is.

Example: 4 x Solo battery = 4 x 5200 mAh = 20800 mAh. If I don't want to exceed 1C charge rate, I could charge the 4 batteries, that are now "one" big battery, at 20.8A. 20.8A x 16.8V = 349.44 Watts. So you would need a charger with at least 350 Watts and a max charge rate of 20.8 A. My charger has 2000W and 70A... I guess I am covered, ha ha.

 

[Maddog]

TJinTech
This site has lots of info about lipo batteries and charging.
Click on "electric RC info, how-tos and such.

 

[Soloing]

TJinTech
This site has lots of info about lipo batteries and charging.
Click on "electric RC info, how-tos and such.

The link doesn't work. However, what are you trying to say?! That I need to check my knowledge about batteries and charging? [emoji12] [emoji12] [emoji12]

 

[Maddog]

The link doesn't work. However, what are you trying to say?! That I need to check my knowledge about batteries and charging? [emoji12] [emoji12] [emoji12]

Hmm- it's working for me. Anybody else having trouble?
Actually I posted it for everybody else.
Im trying to figure out how to post the web address without creating another link only.

 

[Maddog]

Try going to: sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech but put https:// first

 

[Soloing]

Hmm- it's working for me. Anybody else having trouble?
Actually I posted it for everybody else.
Im trying to figure out how to post the web address without creating another link only.

Tapatalk doesn't open it. When I use chrome, it opens. Could be my iPhone 7 prototype though... [emoji12]

 

[al bernardino]

Charging is done in battery. If you want a faster charge you need to bypass the electonics in battery.

 

[Maddog]

Tapatalk doesn't open it. When I use chrome, it opens. Could be my iPhone 7 prototype though... [emoji12]

That is a known issue on the 7- update coming out the 2nd Tuesday of next week.

 

[Soloing]

That is a known issue on the 7- update coming out the 2nd Tuesday of next week.

Did I say 7? Sorry, I meant iPhone 8... [emoji23]

 

[Vashaun Henderson]

Not true. I charged my Solo batteries before with 5 amps... no problem. Like someone said, your charger is or might be the limiting factor.

A lot of people do not know how chargers work. All they see is some numbers. So, when you charger says "max 8 amps", you have to also look at what you are charging and how many Watts you have. For example: If you want to charge a 4s (16.8V) battery with 8 amps, you would need 8 x 16.8V = 134.4 Watts. But if your charger only has 80 Watts, you are then looking at 80W / 16.8V = 4.76 Amps max charge rate...

Thanks.

EDIT: The plan is to use a bigger charger AND charge more batteries at the same time. In Parallel that is.

Example: 4 x Solo battery = 4 x 5200 mAh = 20800 mAh. If I don't want to exceed 1C charge rate, I could charge the 4 batteries, that are now "one" big battery, at 20.8A. 20.8A x 16.8V = 349.44 Watts. So you would need a charger with at least 350 Watts and a max charge rate of 20.8 A. My charger has 2000W and 70A... I guess I am covered, ha ha.

It would not seem to me to be not a matter of battery capacity on my charger. I have a TBS Disco Pro also and use luminier 14.8 5200 size batteries on that, the original purpose of the charger was for those batteries and i charged those at 5.2 amps each (4 at a time), from flat to full in 60-65 minutes or so when balance charging. I would not think that power was the limiting factor, but i will look at it closer.

What mode are yo putting your charger in when charging the solo batteries? I am running my in LiPo 4S 6000MAH charge rate

 

[Soloing]

It would not seem to me to be not a matter of battery capacity on my charger. I have a TBS Disco Pro also and use luminier 14.8 5200 size batteries on that, the original purpose of the charger was for those batteries and i charged those at 5.2 amps each (4 at a time), from flat to full in 60-65 minutes or so when balance charging. I would not think that power was the limiting factor, but i will look at it closer.

What mode are yo putting your charger in when charging the solo batteries? I am running my in LiPo 4S 6000MAH charge rate

Can you rephrase this. I have no clue what you mean?

Thanks.

 

[SirCrashAlot]

...
Set you charger to LiPo, 4s 5200 mAh, 5.2A and turn balancing off. DONE. Now you Solo battery will charge way faster than when using the charger it comes with...
...

I just ordered four of the Molex 171088-0048 plugs here 171088-0048 Connector MOLEX and plan on using my 4x50W charger.

According to https://dev.3dr.com/hardware-battery-charging.html the batteries can be charged @ 2C, which should run around 30 minutes. I usually charge at 1.2-1.5C, but even 1C/1-hour charging sure is better than 4hrs.

Another nice benefit is I should be able to store-charge for storage instead of just pulling the plug at half-charge... Right?

To bad a balance port isn't exposed - these are expensive batteries I'd like to keep them properly conditioned for long life.

 

[PdxSteve]

I just ordered four of the Molex 171088-0048 plugs here 171088-0048 Connector MOLEX and plan on using my 4x50W charger.

According to https://dev.3dr.com/hardware-battery-charging.html the batteries can be charged @ 2C, which should run around 30 minutes. I usually charge at 1.2-1.5C, but even 1C/1-hour charging sure is better than 4hrs.

Another nice benefit is I should be able to store-charge for storage instead of just pulling the plug at half-charge... Right?

To bad a balance port isn't exposed - these are expensive batteries I'd like to keep them properly conditioned for long life.

While the raw lithium batteries themselves can handle 2C (10.4A), the charging circuitry in the battery won't allow it. The max you can give it is 6A. Anything above that and it will just power cycle after about 4 seconds. 6A is still better than the 3.3A stock charger and will charge a battery from 20% to full 30 minutes faster than stock.

 

[SirCrashAlot]

While the raw lithium batteries themselves can handle 2C (10.4A), the charging circuitry in the battery won't allow it. The max you can give it is 6A. Anything above that and it will just power cycle after about 4 seconds. 6A is still better than the 3.3A stock charger and will charge a battery from 20% to full 30 minutes faster than stock.

Ok great thanks, that's good to know.

 

[SirCrashAlot]

Just a FYI, my order at pdfdatasheets.com was apparently canceled with no notification. So in addition to the 171088-0048 Molex connectors not being available, PDFDatasheets.com is a bad seller.

Does anyone know anywhere these connectors might be available?

 

[SirCrashAlot]

I ended up ordering connectors here: https://www.verical.com/pd/molex-power-connector-46437-1087-369766 In my opinion it was kind of a ripoff since minimum order is 6. My cost was $46.02. For a few connectors! :-0 (Anyone interested in two connectors, for say, $25 + shipping? You save $20 and I recoup some costs.)

It looked easiest to just solder the connectors directly to the XT60 plugs, and that worked pretty well.. Here they are before I epoxy them for reinforcement. Not sure if I'll bother with the key prong since my charger has polarity-check (and all but apparently 3DR's have).

Charging on my 4x100W charger works great. 5.8 amps (~1.1C) seems to be the ideal setting. Batteries - or at least the case - don't even get warm to the touch. Haven't timed a store-to-full charge yet but it I expect roughly an hour of charge for an hour of flight time with four batteries which was my goal.

Oddly, I can't seem get the charger's storage function to work. With battery at 15.3V it BATTERY CHECK alarms with CELL CONNECT ERR when set to 4S, 5200mAh @5A discharge rate.. (Yes, the battery is on, currently with six LED charge lights lit). And I can't use my 150W discharger to work either because it needs the balance port, which 3DR doesn't expose. This kind of sucks, half the reason for this project was to be able to store-charge the batteries more easily. Babysitting the charge lights gets old pretty fast. Especially 4X.

So I can't para slow-discharge OR rapid-discharge the batteries for storage. Does anyone know how to accomplish this?